Steve Brooks may have a young team in Ypsilanti this year, with only three seniors.

But at halftime of its playoff opener, down one to Pioneer, he didn’t have to tell them much to get them going.

“They came in and really kind ran the halftime themselves,” Brooks said. “We just kind of listened to them, let them talk, and they went out there and got it done.”

Ypsilanti came out of the break and held Pioneer to only 16 second-half points, while scoring 37 themselves, in a 66-43 district quarterfinal win Monday night at Skyline High School. The Phoenix advance to play Skyline at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in a district semifinal.

Starting with a bucket from freshman Corey Allen on their first possession, the Phoenix started the second half on a 10-2 run, and were up by 10 late in the third. They solidified the win with a 13-5 run to start the fourth quarter.

And more than its offense, the Ypsilanti defense took Pioneer (15-5) out of its offense and held the Pioneers to their lowest point total of the season.

“Second half we turned it up,” Phoenix forward Jaylen Johnson said. “We realized we had to win, so we came together as a team and played defense like we’re supposed to.”

Johnson led Ypsilanti (16-4) with 20 points, including going 6-for-6 at the foul line. Allen added 17, while Janeau Joubert had 10.

Ethan Spencer and Jibreel Hussein had 13 points apiece for a Pioneer team that struggled to create open looks and struggled to hit shots when it did.

“They took us out of our offense the whole game,” Pioneer coach Rex Stanczak said. “We hung in there the first half, we got a couple of turnovers, got some baskets in transition the first half, the second half we just didn’t score.”

Pioneer struggled all game to contain Johnson, the 6-foot-9 junior who added seven boards and three blocked shots to his 20 points. Between him and 6-foot-7 Lavonte Davis, who had six points, eight rebounds and two blocks, the Phoenix posed a difficult matchup.

“You looked at them, they look like a college team,” Stanczak said.

Pioneer was able to take the regular-season matchup at Ypsilanti between the two teams, one in which Ypsilanti was missing Joubert and junior Jalen Harmon, who scored eight points on Monday.

Monday, they ran into a team that had both those players back, but also has improved “tremendously” throughout the course of the season, Brooks said, largely due to its youth.

“We’re playing to get to the Breslin every year. Unfortunately this was a year we thought we could do it because of the senior leadership. But we ran into a buzzsaw.”

Huron pulls away from Pinckney

In Monday's other quarterfinal at Skyline, Huron started the fourth-quarter of a back-and-forth game against Pinckney up by one.

Four minutes later, the River Rats were up 20. And Pinckney hadn’t scored yet in the frame.

Huron (14-6) scored the first 19 points of the fourth quarter as it pulled away from Pinckney in a 55-41 district quarterfinal win Monday at Skyline. The River Rats move on to play Dexter, 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in a semifinal game.

“I don’t think we came out mentally ready,” Huron guard Antonio Henry said. “This is districts so we’ve got to come out ready to play.”

Huron’s run started with two steals and two buckets by Henry, who finished with 12 points as the only Huron player in double figures. The River Rats forced turnovers on five of Pinckney’s first seven possessions of the fourth quarter, and forced 30 for the game.

“We turned it up defensively and that’s the only reason we’re standing here right now,” Huron coach Waleed Samaha said.

Huron started the game on a 10-0 run behind a pair of 3-pointers. But from there it slowed down, scoring only 13 points the rest of the half as the Pirates climbed back.

“I think we kind of overlooked them,” Henry said. “It’s not disrespect to them or anything. We were thinking more ahead.”

Comments

gold&purple

Tue, Mar 5, 2013 : 6:47 p.m.

Congrats to Ypsi! Impressive win!

Pete Cunningham

Tue, Mar 5, 2013 : 4:15 p.m.

The link to AnnArbor.com photographer Dan Brenner's video from the &quot;above the rim&quot; vantage point has been fixed. It's a pretty cool look at some big plays from the game, including a dunk, a charge, a block and what appears to be a player being shot by a cannon. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/embed/GdyUkONEL5Y

Peggysue

Tue, Mar 5, 2013 : 3:29 p.m.

A2 did yur official forget to show up? Lol

say it plain

Tue, Mar 5, 2013 : 1:47 p.m.

I think the comments from Pioneer's coach exemplifies some attitude differences between their program and others in the area. &quot;Incredibly disappointing&quot; and &quot;every year we aim for Breslin&quot; and so on. These are high school kids. Yes, lots of seniors, but instead of saying hey, I love my seniors and we wanted to keep playing but thanks guys for a great run of highschool career play, it's more oh, we coulda/woulda/shoulda but we ran into a buzzsaw. Actually, you didn't play a 'buzzsaw', but a bunch of boys with hopes and intentions to move on as well. It would be nice if we could keep it about the kids and their positive development instead of grand-standing statements about breslin or bust and 'senior leadership' .
The comments from the Huron coach and from the Ypsi coach seemed so much more focused on a calm solid sportsmanlike context for development.

Kyle Austin

Wed, Mar 6, 2013 : 7:20 p.m.

bballcachfballfan makes a good point that we talk to these coaches for several minutes after the games, but have room for only a few quotes. We try to not take anything out of context, but it's true that most of what's said won't be quoted.
say it plain, I'm not sure exactly what your criticism of the Pioneer coach's comments were. He was very complimentary of Ypsilanti, and simply said his team had hopes to go further in the tournament and that his seniors were disappointed.

bballcoachfballfan

Wed, Mar 6, 2013 : 6:37 p.m.

Say it Plain, I am all for individuals speaking their mind and I have no problem with people who have knowledge criticizing. But your observations here are so polar opposite to reality that I have to reply after hearing about this from my father. First of all, how would you know all the things that were said to Kyle? His editors take 3/4 of the stuff out. I would ask you to talk to a few Pioneer players, a few Pioneer parents about the program. You would find that you are so, so false in your statements. It is all about the players and all about the seniors--it's never about the coaches. There has never been &quot;grandstanding&quot; as you &quot;plainly say it.&quot; It seems like you either have a personal vendetta or you have absolutely no understanding of the terms used in a sports interview and certainly no concept of the Pioneer program. The day you put yourself out there and mentor high school kids, shed a tear (or many) at their senior banquet, help them go onto college and stay in touch with them for the rest of their lives--that's the day you have the right to say what you said here. As they say: &quot;you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.&quot;